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February 2026

March 2026

April 2026

May 2026

June 2026

Exhibitions

Saturday 28 February
2026

Group Show

THE HOOLIGANS

White Rabbit Gallery
Friday 19 December – Sunday 17 May

Group Show

Infinite Scroll

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Saturday 27 September – Sunday 26 July

Tina Havelock Stevens

!!

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 8 November – Sunday 1 March

Kate Mitchell

In the Eye of the Giant

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Monday 17 November – Monday 1 June

Group Show

High Colour

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 31 May – Sunday 9 August

Group Show

Big Brother Movement

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 9 August – Saturday 21 March

Group Show

RELIC

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 29 November – Saturday 14 March

Columbiere Tipungwuti

Japarra (The Moonman)

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

Yasmin Smith

Elemental Life

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 3 October – Monday 8 June

Kate Mitchell

Set States

CHALK HORSE
Saturday 8 November – Sunday 22 March

Mary Tonkin

Among the Trees

S.H. Ervin Gallery
Saturday 3 January – Sunday 1 March

Group Show

Set / Scene

.M Contemporary
Thursday 15 January – Saturday 28 February

Group Show

SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art

National Art School Gallery
Saturday 17 January – Saturday 11 April

Group Show

All the World’s Memories

UNSW Galleries
Friday 13 February – Sunday 3 May

Group Show

Palpable: Works on Paper from the Mosman Art Collection

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 21 February – Sunday 22 March

art tart

Pat Larter

Utopia Arts Sydney
Saturday 7 February – Saturday 28 February

Caroline Walls

She Once Was

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 11 February – Saturday 7 March

Rachelle Lawler

Call Me When We Land

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 4 February – Saturday 28 February

Catherine Clayton-Smith

Breeding Beauty

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 4 February – Saturday 28 February

Tisna Sanjaya

Cultural Amnesia

The Cross Arts Projects
Saturday 21 February – Saturday 28 March

Jon Cattapan

The War at Home: Drawings and paintings

Dominik Mersch Gallery
Saturday 28 February – Saturday 21 March

Group Show

Rewilding

Darren Knight Gallery
Saturday 7 February – Saturday 21 March

Ted Hillyer

Ted Hillyer

Robin Gibson Gallery
Saturday 21 February – Saturday 21 March

Columbiere Tipungwuti

Japarra (The Moonman)

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

A major highlight of the official artistic program at the 2026 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Japarra (The Moonman) by Columbiere Tipungwuti opens in February at Michael Reid Sydney and marks the Tiwi Islands artist and dancer’s first large-scale solo exhibition since his star turn in our annual survey Painting Now.

Set to walk alongside the Sistagirls in the 2026 Mardi Gras Parade, Tipungwuti is a significant presence within the Tiwi Islands community and an artist whose highly distinctive painting practice continues to draw strong institutional and collector interest across Australia and abroad.

Tipungwuti’s Murrakupupuni (Country) is Wurankuwu, a homeland inherited through his father’s family, while his tribe, Wulinjuwula (Mosquito), comes from his matrilineal line. Having performed ballet in Eora/Sydney in the 1980s, he is also an accomplished dancer. “My father danced Jarranga (buffalo) and my mother danced Ampiji (rainbow),” says Tipungwuti, who continues to perform at ceremony and events where there is yoyi (dance). “My totem is buffalo, but when some of those women who are related through my mother’s side dance Ampiji, I join in, too.”

Across his striking monochrome works on bark and canvas, Tipungwuti depicts the celestial figures at the heart of Tiwi ceremonial culture: Japarra, the moon-man who brought mortality into the world, and japalinga, the stars whose ochred forms adorn dancers during ceremony and yoyi. “I paint Japarra because I want to tell that story from long ago – what he did on earth and keep that story going,” says the artist. The story recounts Japarra’s encounter with Purukuparli and Wai-ai, the death of their child, and his ascent to the sky, where his white light reminds the Tiwi people of the cycle of life and death.

“In parlingarri – old time – Japarra saw the family out bush; the baby died from the sun, and Japarra wanted to take him up for three days and bring him back alive. But the father said, ‘Karlu’ – ‘no’. After fighting, Japarra flew up and stayed in the sky to become the moon and look down on the whole world. Now everyone around the world can’t come back; they must follow that father and his son and die when it is their time.

” Rendered in stark black and white, the ancestral moon-man appears, by turns, solemn, playful and elemental; his face endlessly compelling. “Japarra is white – the moon-man has a white body. All the stars are white and the moon is white too,” Tipungwuti explains of his palette, made from white ochre collected on Country at Wurankuwu. “I want to share my story and the story of my painting with people from all over the world.”

A finalist in the 2024 National Emerging Art Prize, Tipungwuti’s work was shown to great acclaim in 2025 at UNSW Galleries in Parlingarri Amintiya Ningani Awungarra: Old and New, curated by José Da Silva with Jilamara Arts.

“In years gone by, there was a strong Tiwi tradition of producing nude figurative ironwood carvings that tell [Japarra’s] story,” writes cultural critic and researcher Tristen Harwood. “Tipungwuti’s paintings draw on these important cultural influences to create innovative works grounded in his knowledge of the old stories and connection to longstanding practices of storytelling.”

Location

Michael Reid Gallery
109 Shepherd Street, Chippendale NSW 2008

Date

Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

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Website

https://michaelreid.com.au/exhibition/columbiere-tipungwuti-japarra-the-moonman/

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

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Exhibitions

Saturday 28 February
2026

Group Show

THE HOOLIGANS

White Rabbit Gallery
Friday 19 December – Sunday 17 May

Group Show

Infinite Scroll

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Saturday 27 September – Sunday 26 July

Tina Havelock Stevens

!!

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 8 November – Sunday 1 March

Kate Mitchell

In the Eye of the Giant

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Monday 17 November – Monday 1 June

Group Show

High Colour

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 31 May – Sunday 9 August

Group Show

Big Brother Movement

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 9 August – Saturday 21 March

Group Show

RELIC

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 29 November – Saturday 14 March

Columbiere Tipungwuti

Japarra (The Moonman)

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

Yasmin Smith

Elemental Life

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 3 October – Monday 8 June

Kate Mitchell

Set States

CHALK HORSE
Saturday 8 November – Sunday 22 March

Mary Tonkin

Among the Trees

S.H. Ervin Gallery
Saturday 3 January – Sunday 1 March

Group Show

Set / Scene

.M Contemporary
Thursday 15 January – Saturday 28 February

Group Show

SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art

National Art School Gallery
Saturday 17 January – Saturday 11 April

Group Show

All the World’s Memories

UNSW Galleries
Friday 13 February – Sunday 3 May

Group Show

Palpable: Works on Paper from the Mosman Art Collection

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 21 February – Sunday 22 March

art tart

Pat Larter

Utopia Arts Sydney
Saturday 7 February – Saturday 28 February

Caroline Walls

She Once Was

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 11 February – Saturday 7 March

Rachelle Lawler

Call Me When We Land

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 4 February – Saturday 28 February

Catherine Clayton-Smith

Breeding Beauty

Olsen Gallery
Wednesday 4 February – Saturday 28 February

Tisna Sanjaya

Cultural Amnesia

The Cross Arts Projects
Saturday 21 February – Saturday 28 March

Jon Cattapan

The War at Home: Drawings and paintings

Dominik Mersch Gallery
Saturday 28 February – Saturday 21 March

Group Show

Rewilding

Darren Knight Gallery
Saturday 7 February – Saturday 21 March

Ted Hillyer

Ted Hillyer

Robin Gibson Gallery
Saturday 21 February – Saturday 21 March

Columbiere Tipungwuti

Japarra (The Moonman)

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

A major highlight of the official artistic program at the 2026 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Japarra (The Moonman) by Columbiere Tipungwuti opens in February at Michael Reid Sydney and marks the Tiwi Islands artist and dancer’s first large-scale solo exhibition since his star turn in our annual survey Painting Now.

Set to walk alongside the Sistagirls in the 2026 Mardi Gras Parade, Tipungwuti is a significant presence within the Tiwi Islands community and an artist whose highly distinctive painting practice continues to draw strong institutional and collector interest across Australia and abroad.

Tipungwuti’s Murrakupupuni (Country) is Wurankuwu, a homeland inherited through his father’s family, while his tribe, Wulinjuwula (Mosquito), comes from his matrilineal line. Having performed ballet in Eora/Sydney in the 1980s, he is also an accomplished dancer. “My father danced Jarranga (buffalo) and my mother danced Ampiji (rainbow),” says Tipungwuti, who continues to perform at ceremony and events where there is yoyi (dance). “My totem is buffalo, but when some of those women who are related through my mother’s side dance Ampiji, I join in, too.”

Across his striking monochrome works on bark and canvas, Tipungwuti depicts the celestial figures at the heart of Tiwi ceremonial culture: Japarra, the moon-man who brought mortality into the world, and japalinga, the stars whose ochred forms adorn dancers during ceremony and yoyi. “I paint Japarra because I want to tell that story from long ago – what he did on earth and keep that story going,” says the artist. The story recounts Japarra’s encounter with Purukuparli and Wai-ai, the death of their child, and his ascent to the sky, where his white light reminds the Tiwi people of the cycle of life and death.

“In parlingarri – old time – Japarra saw the family out bush; the baby died from the sun, and Japarra wanted to take him up for three days and bring him back alive. But the father said, ‘Karlu’ – ‘no’. After fighting, Japarra flew up and stayed in the sky to become the moon and look down on the whole world. Now everyone around the world can’t come back; they must follow that father and his son and die when it is their time.

” Rendered in stark black and white, the ancestral moon-man appears, by turns, solemn, playful and elemental; his face endlessly compelling. “Japarra is white – the moon-man has a white body. All the stars are white and the moon is white too,” Tipungwuti explains of his palette, made from white ochre collected on Country at Wurankuwu. “I want to share my story and the story of my painting with people from all over the world.”

A finalist in the 2024 National Emerging Art Prize, Tipungwuti’s work was shown to great acclaim in 2025 at UNSW Galleries in Parlingarri Amintiya Ningani Awungarra: Old and New, curated by José Da Silva with Jilamara Arts.

“In years gone by, there was a strong Tiwi tradition of producing nude figurative ironwood carvings that tell [Japarra’s] story,” writes cultural critic and researcher Tristen Harwood. “Tipungwuti’s paintings draw on these important cultural influences to create innovative works grounded in his knowledge of the old stories and connection to longstanding practices of storytelling.”

Location

Michael Reid Gallery
109 Shepherd Street, Chippendale NSW 2008

Date

Thursday 26 February – Saturday 21 March

Save to Calendar

Google

Website

https://michaelreid.com.au/exhibition/columbiere-tipungwuti-japarra-the-moonman/

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

Suggest a change

Suggest an edit or change to this exhibition

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